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mercer@catholicvote.orgWhy I am Voting For Trump and Donating, Toohttps://www.catholicvote.org/why-i-am-voting-for-trump-and-donating-too/
https://www.catholicvote.org/why-i-am-voting-for-trump-and-donating-too/#commentsSun, 30 Oct 2016 02:28:18 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=10972I am voting for Trump because he is not Hillary Clinton.

Trump is behind in the polls. I suspect there is a very large number of people like myself who have considered not voting for president at all or for a third party rather than vote for either candidate. I hope those people will come to see that it is a good decision for those who live in a swing state to vote for Trump. Even more importantly we should give verbal support to his campaign and financial support to groups trying to get him elected.

I know it is not attractive to vote for and support Trump, but I believe we must. The stakes are very, very high.

It took me some time to come to this judgment. I have watched all the debates and was horrified when the vulgar, shallow, bullying, mendacious Trump beat 16 other decent — and some very good — Republican candidates. When Trump became the nominee, I was seriously thinking of not voting.

But over time as I evaluated what Hillary has done – all the terrible things I know she has done — and when I saw that all of our worst suspicions of her have been verified by what has been found in her emails, I realized I needed to vote for the only person who can stop her. She is the most corrupt person I have ever seen in American politics.

She lost me big time with her actions with respect to Benghazi and her testimony before Congress about the tragedy. The list of her horrifically bad deeds, some of them felonious, is too long to produce here. But surely a private email account, a pledge to support abortion in every way possible, trading favors with our enemies to fatten her own coffers, and plans to force Catholic hospitals to do abortions (which will be followed by requirements for Catholic schools to teach that homosexuality and transgenderism are normal) are enough to prove that Clinton is a real and present danger to religious liberty.

I am, of course, miserable that the only viable alternative to Clinton is Trump. I share most of the concerns of all those who are determined not to vote for him, but those concerns don’t begin, really, to be counterbalanced not just by concerns about Hillary but very strong and justified convictions about her.

Funding Trump

When I reluctantly decided I had to vote for Trump, I realized I had to do more than that. I had already made contributions to several candidates – Fiorina, Rubio, and Cruz, but I had a very hard time convincing myself to do give money to Trump or to speak on his behalf publicly.

Voting for candidates is not enough. I have concluded for the most part that our single votes in this huge nation count for very little. Whether I vote or not is not likely to influence the outcome of the election. That doesn’t mean I think it is unimportant to vote; I think it is very important. It is a civic act that reinforces my commitment to the democratic process; it makes me pay closer attention to candidates and their policies. Becoming an intentional voter and becoming informed helps me engage responsibly in arguably even more influential and important activities such as dialoguing knowledgeably with others and trying to influence their votes.

By donating to various political organizations, I hope more voters will vote the right way. My discussions and donations are arguably more important than my single votes. Still, while each single vote doesn’t count for much, many single votes do; so it is important that I vote and that I work to help others vote the correct way.

I was not quick, though, to get out my credit card or to write in behalf of Trump. In fact, when I saw that several individuals I highly admire had made public commitments to Trump, I didn’t know how they could be so disregardful of what that was doing to their reputations and what would happen to their reputations if he becomes president and turns out to be a terrible president. The media has smeared Trump supporters as racist, xenophobic, and sexist with all sorts of other deplorable qualities — and who wants to be painted with that brush? Certainly Trump is very likely to do some and maybe even many things I really don’t want to see done. Yet, after more reflection, I decided I had to join those willing to put their reputations at risk for the common good. If those of us who have been thought to be trustworthy guides to good decision-making become discounted because of our support of Trump, I hope that eventually people will realize what we did was wise even if the results are against our hopes and wishes. Our aim is to stop Hillary, a much surer threat to all that is good.

I have taken several positions in my life that have ruined my reputation in some circles and enhanced it in others – it seems this is another time that it will be worth it. I do believe the future of this country will suffer for a very long time if Hillary is elected.

Responses to counter-arguments

For a couple of weeks I have been discussing various issues on Facebook with people who think it wrong to vote for Trump. I truly hope “NeverTrumpers” will prayerfully reconsider. Especially those who have a lot of influence with others.

Let me address some of their points, though most every point can be answered the same way. Yes, Trump is bad because of X, BUT HILLARY IS WORSE.

We can’t do evil to achieve good

That is certainly true: we should never do evil to achieve good. But voting for the less bad candidate is not doing evil. In fact, it is what we often do. Although sometimes we really admire our candidates and want them in office, often we are not truly enthusiastic supporters of candidates: we just think they are better than the alternative.

Voting by its very nature is an “instrumental” act: a means to an end. Voting is most commonly the act of choosing the best option among the viable options available. It is not an endorsement of the candidate’s character or even his or her positions. Many, many considerations may factor into one’s vote. Many of those concern “contingencies,” that is, making the best possible judgments about what the candidate is likely to do. And those judgments can be based on what the candidate has done in the past, on what the candidate has said, on what one thinks about the candidate’s character, or on the testimonies of those one trusts (and perhaps other factors.) There is no complete certainty about these judgments, but one can have what is known as “moral certitude,” which means that one has very good evidence that a given outcome will occur.

But, of course, moral certitude is often not possible. In those instances, it is justifiable to vote according to one’s best judgment which might have very little certitude but represents the best that one can do with the knowledge one has.

In this freakish election cycle we have two wretched candidates but, in my view, Hillary is manifestly more wretched and more dangerous.

Trump is not qualified to be president (but he is impeachable!)

I’m inclined to agree with that assessment. But NEITHER IS HILLARY. She is a felon. She has given favors to our enemies to fill her own coffers. The fact that she got away with using a private server for classified mail, an act for which others are quite immediately convicted, shows she is untouchable. It is not inconceivable that Trump could get impeached if he did something awful. The Republicans hate him and, while they may be willing to work with him, they might well be happy to ditch him if the opportunity arises.

By contrast, Hillary is supported foursquare by her party, its institutions, and its elected officials, who would not support her impeachment even if she were caught personally leading a burglary at the RNC. Neither candidate is fit for office, but only one candidate has a chance at being removed for unfitness.

How strange it is to argue that we should vote for the impeachable candidate, but we should.

The GOP will never recover from a Trump presidency

I am not certain the GOP is worthy of saving, but I suspect Trump losing might be just as bad or worse for the GOP as winning. He will likely start a third party that neither I nor any of my friends would ever join. The GOP did not properly regroup after the election of Obama; why should we believe they will be able to regroup after Hillary? If Congress manages to pass some worthy legislation under Trump (such as the repeal of Obamacare), they may become a viable party again – though my more in-the-know Republican friends tell me the GOP is too divided for these things to happen. I hope that we at least get some decent Supreme Court justices and more protection for the life of the unborn and for religious liberty. Those may be long shots, but they are not outside the realm of possibility, in my view.

After a Hillary presidency, we might not be able to regroup or form a new and better third party. Freedom of speech and action may be so curtailed that we can no longer build the support needed to stop her and her ilk. If she succeeds in closing Catholic institutions and preventing freedom of speech, how will we educate others to think correctly so as to be able to counter her? Countries who fall under the rule of tyrannical relativists take centuries to recover. We are foolish to think it couldn’t happen here.

But isn’t Trump just awful?

Yes, he is in many respects — and in some really distressing respects. I make no excuses for his behavior – a lot of which is very objectionable. I wish he weren’t the only viable alternative to Hillary — but he is. Some people think he is more open to conversion and growth than Hillary. I hope he is but I try to base my decisions on who the person is now. And even now, as wretched as Trump is, he is better than Hillary.

There is no reason to think he will be faithful to his prolife pledges

Well, maybe yes, maybe no, but we can be sure Hillary will be faithful to hers. She will do everything she can to make abortion more accessible – up until birth. She will try to make abortions free and will appoint pro-abortion judges to the Supreme Court – she may have up to 4 appointments. Yes, Republicans have made bad appointments; we have been duped. But Republicans have made some good ones too. Hillary will try her best to nominate those who pro-lifers will consider to be the worst possible candidates. Trump has presented a fantastic list of names from which he shall choose. Moreover, some very dedicated pro-lifers have met with Trump and endorsed him. He has been vetted by those I trust and he has made specific plans. Again, against Hillary’s plans, I will take my risks with Trump. Finally, note that Trump was the ONLY person to speak against abortion at the Al Smith diner. That was a bold step and not clearly calculated to get him votes.

His followers are terrible people

Some are, for sure, though we must remember how the media is slanting things towards Hillary. Indeed, Hillary is even responsible for much of the violence at his events – she went to far as to send thugs to threaten women at Trump’s events. But, yes, there are racists and sexists and xenophobes among his supporters. Of course, they exist in Hillary’s ranks, too, but the difference is that Trump’s are working class and Hillary’s are the elite. But I am not voting for Trump because I want to advance his “movement.” I want to stop Hillary.

Some people say it is a mortal sin to vote for Trump; some say it is a mortal sin not to; some say it is a mortal sin to vote for Hillary.

I think the very act of voting for a candidate in itself can rarely be a sin, let alone a mortal sin. That is not to say that sin can’t be involved. Mortal sin must involve grave matter, and I don’t think a single vote can have that kind of impact. But sin is a matter not just of the external act performed. It is also a matter of the intention. If a person votes for a pro-abortion candidate because he/she wants more babies killed by abortion, the will of that person is severely disordered and the sin is in the attitude that accompanies the vote rather than in the vote itself.

Indeed, sometimes it might be a good thing to vote for a pro-abortion candidate when, for instance, both candidates are equally pro-abortion but one is much better on other important issues. Or when one thinks the pro-abortion candidate has many other terrific proposals and won’t really make much of a difference in respect to abortion.

Believe me, I think it is rare that someone should vote for a pro-abortion candidate, for a person with several personality disorders, or for a person who has lived an immoral life (I think Hillary is all of these and Trump some). But one cannot make blanket statements that we can never vote for this or that candidate. Context can force us to make choices we wouldn’t otherwise make.

Voting certainly has moral dimensions of many kinds. If I vote for a swindler who will pass laws that benefit other swindlers and not for the common good, that both reveals my character and solidifies it. Holding one’s nose and voting for someone one really doesn’t want to see in office, but whom one understands to be better than the alternative, can reveal and solidify a good character. Such a person has the virtue of prudence and values the common good over one’s own reputation.

Trump will lead us into a world war and international conflicts.

I don’t really know how to assess this claim. Many speak of Trump as isolationist and Hillary as hawkish. Some fear that Trump’s taunting and combative ways might lead other countries to be readier to wage war against us. I understand that. But more military folk seem to support Trump and prefer to have him at the helm. He promises to strengthen the military which generally makes war less likely. Putin has endorsed Trump and that makes me think he wants Hillary to win. Furthermore, it is arguable that Hillary has done more to assist our enemies than to thwart them. People are guessing here, so it seems to me. Those who are convinced Trump will more likely lead us into war should not vote for him (thought the death toll from Hillary’s support for abortion may be higher), but I haven’t seen evidence that convinces me .

My conscience is revolted at the thought of voting for Trump. You shouldn’t question the judgment of my conscience.

The Church teaches that we must always choose in accord with our consciences, and that our consciences should be properly formed. In the case where there is settled Church teaching on a matter, a Catholic should form his/her conscience in accord with that (i.e., no fornication).

But there are many decisions that require prudence, which means assessing many factors, often foremost among them the certain or likely consequences of an action. In voting, that is very much what must take place. Voters must educate themselves about the candidates and vote for the one who will do a better job of governing.

Not voting or voting for a third party candidate completely unlikely to win can sometimes be a good choice, if both more viable candidates likely to win are equally bad. That vote is a “sending a message” vote. Those who live in states which Hillary will win by a landslide might wish to use their votes that way, since a vote from Trump will do no good.

Much of the disagreement between individuals who agree on fundamentals, but think it is right to vote for different candidates, results from different evaluations of the likely consequences of voting for a candidate. Some very devout Catholics think Trump is worse; others think Hillary is worse; others think they are both so evil that it would be wrong to vote for either one.

Is there no way of adjudicating these differences? Must we say, “We must all vote our consciences and thus agree to disagree?”

No, not before a lot of discussion takes place.

We must work to flesh out all the considerations that are influencing our votes. We must follow the news and bring out the facts as they are disclosed. It is possible that such a process will lead to a clear conclusion that one candidate is better than another.

[It should go without saying that none of us can be absolutely certain that we are correct, and thus should have some humility in insisting that it is altogether clear what the right choice is.]

Now, certainly, even if all the objective evidence clearly points to one candidate being better than another, not everyone (who agrees on fundamentals) will agree that the evidence is objectively clear. What accounts for the disagreement?

Some people are incapable, for various reasons, of evaluating evidence correctly. They may have irrational fears about some matter, for instance. If they are innocent of not recognizing and overcoming those fears, they would not be culpable for their poor choice. (This is invincible ignorance.)

But some people may be culpable; their inability to choose correctly may be the result of some character flaw, such as stubbornness, which prevents them from changing a position already taken even in view of the clear evidence. (This is vincible ignorance.)

Would some people be justified in not voting for the clear choice? Could their consciences be rightly leading the to make a choice different from the objectively correct choice? And thus they would be justified in saying “My conscience tells me to vote for X, so please respect my conscience.”

Yes, sometimes this can happen. As I have stated, one single vote in our culture is quite an inconsequential thing. One vote has little impact on the whole. If it would create serious marital disharmony to support a candidate, then it could be a wise matter not to verbally support or vote for that candidate. Voting is a private act so it is possible that one could vote for a candidate one has not “supported”. Still, one might very much want to answer one’s spouse truthfully who asks, “For whom did you vote?” In that instance, a vote for the poorer candidate could be justified. Example two: a person who works in place where he would lose all credibility with his coworkers shouldn’t show support for a candidate. (Note, though, those who are voting in accord with some personal standard that overrides the objective standard should not be trying to get others to vote the way they are going to vote.)

Yes, we must all vote our consciences even when they are wrong (though we should not believe they are wrong!). We must do everything to shape them and vote accordingly.

One last question: suppose one agrees that all the evidence points to one candidate as clearly being the right choice but one still cannot move one’s self to vote for that person. Would it be wrong not to vote for that person? I suspect not. It may well be that one has a strong intuition of an obstacle to voting that one has not yet identified and sometimes it is right to heed those intuitions, though one should be careful not to use them as an excuse for failing to do what one knows to be right.

Conclusion

I believe the evidence manifestly points to Hillary as the vastly inferior candidate and a tremendously dangerous one. It is to be much lamented that the only viable alternative to her is the reprehensible Trump.

While I am voting for Trump, advocating for Trump, donating to Trump-friendly organizations, I am not praying that Trump will win. I am praying that God will use whomever we elect to lead this country to respect His laws. I know He often writes with crooked lines…

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/why-i-am-voting-for-trump-and-donating-too/feed/77Kelly File Reports on CV’s Call for Clinton Spokesperson Resignationhttps://www.catholicvote.org/megyn-kelly-reports-on-cvs-call-for-clinton-spokesperson-resignation/
https://www.catholicvote.org/megyn-kelly-reports-on-cvs-call-for-clinton-spokesperson-resignation/#commentsThu, 13 Oct 2016 21:32:02 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=10731Following the release of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails, several email threads between various members of Clinton’s staff and allies exposed an anti-Catholic culture within the Clinton campaign. When the news leaked, CatholicVote.org called for the resignation of Clinton campaign spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, who joined in mocking two prominent media members for raising their kids Catholic. She called Catholicism “the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they became evangelical.”

On FOX, the Megyn Kelly File reported on CatholicVote’s call for Palmieri’s resignation:

Yesterday, Wikileaks released transcripts of an email exchange entitled “Conservative Catholicism” between Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, campaign spokesperson Jennifer Palmieri, and John Halpin, a staffer at the Clinton allied Center for American Progress.

Halpin writes about these Catholics: “They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy…”

Clinton spokesperson Palmieri agreed: “I imagine they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they became evangelicals.”

Halpin replied: “Excellent point. They can throw around ‘Thomistic’ thought and ‘subsidiarity’ and sound sophisticated because no one knows what the hell they’re talking about.”

Aside from their blatant bigotry and ignorance about the philosophy and social teachings of Catholicism, does anyone notice a pattern here?

Hillary has already called half of her opponents’ supporters ‘a basket of deplorables’ and‘irredeemable.’ Now we get a glimpse of what her staff and friends think about Catholics in particular:

They mock Catholic converts.

They ridicule Catholics for raising their kids Catholic.

They call our faith ‘severely backwards.’

Make no mistake, had Clinton staff and allies spoken this way about other groups, they would be dismissed. Just imagine if Clinton’s spokesperson was caught calling prominent Muslims or Jewish converts frauds for embracing their faith and mocking them for doing so because it was socially acceptable.

This morning we called on Jennifer Palmieri to resign immediately from the Clinton campaign.

Let’s shut down their campaign phone lines until Jennifer Palmieri is dismissed or resigns!

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/hillary-clintons-campaign-spokeswoman-mocks-catholics/feed/16Phoenix Priest Speaks Hard Truths on Catholic Voting and Abortionhttps://www.catholicvote.org/phoenix-priest-speaks-hard-truths-on-catholic-voting-and-abortion/
https://www.catholicvote.org/phoenix-priest-speaks-hard-truths-on-catholic-voting-and-abortion/#commentsFri, 07 Oct 2016 16:43:41 +0000https://catholicvote.org/?p=10637In this homily from Oct. 2, Father John Lankeit, the rector of Saints Simon & Jude Cathedral in Phoenix, Arizona, delivered a strong message to voters on why the issue of abortion supersedes all others in political consideration.

He doesn’t name a party or a candidate, but he emphasizes that, if you are so ignorant of party/candidate platforms and policies that you can’t tell what and whom he’s talking about, you may wish to consider educating yourself or abstaining from voting.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/phoenix-priest-speaks-hard-truths-on-catholic-voting-and-abortion/feed/76Benjamin Watson: When Bad Things Happen to Good Peoplehttps://www.catholicvote.org/benjamin-watson-when-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/
https://www.catholicvote.org/benjamin-watson-when-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/#respondTue, 30 Aug 2016 05:25:43 +0000https://catholicvote.org/?p=10190In the opening play of the preseason game on Saturday, Aug. 27, featuring the Baltimore Ravens vs. the Detroit Lions, 35-year-old Ravens tight end Benjamin Watson went down with a torn Achilles tendon and had to be helped off the field.

He’s going to be out for the rest of the season.

After a long and successful run with the New Orleans Saints, the veteran player and outspoken Christian came to the Ravens with a two-year contract and was expected to be key to the team’s offense. Now, he’ll spend the 2016 season at home with wife Kirsten and their five children, including a daughter born in August. 2015.

Eldest of 6, Father of 5, Athlete of 4, Servant of 3, Son of 2, Husband of 1

Support and prayers began to flow in on social media from Watson’s fans — both of his on-field activities, and of his off-field Christian witness and writings, especially his heartfelt Facebook posts and book, “Under Our Skin.”

The nonfiction tome expands on Watson’s social-media efforts to offer a reasoned, thoughtful, fair-minded and deeply Christ-centered response to some of the most hot-button issues of our time, particularly race.

Watson even recently took on the “transgender” bathroom issue, writing, in part, on Facebook:

I do not claim to understand the confusion, isolation, distress, pride or any other emotion of those who struggle with gender dysphoria or those in their families who support them. Because of this, as easy as it may be to do, it is not my place to speculate about their motives and character, or insult them for their lifestyle choices. Like me, these individuals are loved and valued by their creator. Like me they deserve to earn a living, enjoy friendships, and live free from slurs, disparaging remarks, and bodily harm. And like me, they stand condemned and separated from a Holy God except for the covering of the atoning blood of his Son, applied on their behalf through repentance and faith. Like me, they were created for a purpose, male and female, to be an earthly depiction of the spiritual union between Christ and his bride, his body, the church. As important as genitalia are in determination, gender roles do not stop at anatomy. They were created as complimentary differences that should be celebrated, embraced and encouraged. They build strong families, healthy communities, and ordered nations. There is great beauty in masculinity and femininity that fully blooms in the sacrificial oneness of marriage. To accept the blurring there of is to deny and tacitly reject God’s design and to condone what He has created as a reflection, albeit imperfect because of our humanity, of his immense love for us. This is the danger we face, not only with this issue but with any issue, when our feelings, genetic predispositions and desires take precedence over His principles.

This is the crux of the matter. If I believe I am my own God, I am within all rights to do, say and believe as I please. But if I believe I was created, then he who did so is God and I am not. And my duty is to obey him for he knows what is best for those to whom he gave life.

Along with money and the opportunity to support his family and pursue the causes that touch his heart, the NFL has given Watson a tremendous platform to speak the truth of Christ, leading to over 59,000 Twitter followers and over 341,000 fans on Facebook.

I’ve always thought the best use of fame was to leverage it to help others, which many NFL players do (including Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson, another vocal Christian, who has an unflagging dedication to visiting, fundraising for, and cheerleading children battling cancer in Seattle). With some exceptions, though, when you’re not an active player, it’s hard to keep that spotlight.

I’m sure the levelheaded Watson has ensured his financial security and that of his family, but it seems a shame that he’ll be sidelined during such a pivotal year.

But, in the ways that really matter, he won’t. Even with his leg in a cast, Watson has Facebook and Twitter; he can promote his book; he can continue lending his measured, wise voice to the problems of the day.

In the calculation of God, maybe that’s way more important than running drills and making touchdowns. In fact, I’m certain it is.

Football has provided Watson the megaphone, but it’s the Holy Spirit that can inspire what he uses it for.

Still, he’s human and a professional athlete, so the prospect of watching from the recliner at home instead of being out there with his teammates is disappointing and frustrating.

“I know the league and the Players Association is working very hard and trying to figure out ideas to work out the preseason,” Harbaugh said Saturday night, via the Baltimore Sun. “These are big, fast, strong men running around out there. It’s not 25 years ago. … It’s not the ’70s anymore. These guys playing in these games — it’s tough — and they’re not meaningful games. They are important to get better, and they improve us. But we football coaches can find ways to get our guys ready and get our players evaluated without the kind of risk that a game necessarily entails.”

Watson said, again on Facebook:

Thank you all for the outpouring of love encouragement and prayer the last couple days. In a sad heartbreaking time it has truly lifted my spirits.

In the general scheme of things, an interruption, or even the end, of a long and successful football career hardly qualifies as a tragedy. But as he always does, Watson uses the opportunity to point toward Christ, and that’s what really matters.

(Now, if we could just pray him and his beautiful family into the Catholic Church!)

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/benjamin-watson-when-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/feed/0Father Jacques Hamel: World Youth Day Attendees React to Islamist Murder of French Priesthttps://www.catholicvote.org/father-jacques-hamel-world-youth-day-attendees-react-to-islamist-murder-of-french-priest/
https://www.catholicvote.org/father-jacques-hamel-world-youth-day-attendees-react-to-islamist-murder-of-french-priest/#commentsSat, 30 Jul 2016 01:22:42 +0000https://catholicvote.org/?p=9855On Tuesday, July 26, one day after the official start of World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, two terrorists pledging allegiance to ISIS stormed into a parish church in Normandy, France.

Father Hamel was celebrating Mass on a Tuesday morning when two men with knives entered the small church and slit his throat, an attack that horrified people across France in the world. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the two assailants — who were shot dead by the police — were “soldiers” retaliating against the United States coalition fighting the group in Iraq and Syria.

According to reports, the 86-year-old priest, who could have retired at 75, was dedicated to his parish and community, and was universally beloved.

Abbe Jacques Hamel, born in 1930 in Darnétal and ordained a priest in 1958, was vicar of the parish of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. He celebrated his golden jubilee in 2008. Also taken hostage were two nuns and two worshipers. Another nun managed to escape and was able to alert authorities.

Also from The New York Times:

The Rev. Alexandre Joly, a priest from a nearby parish, expressed horror at the killing of Father Hamel. “It’s the moment when the priest is giving this act of love, that he is killed,” Father Joly said. “It’s incomprehensible.” He described Father Hamel as “very kind” and “someone whom no one could hate.”

Another priest described him as a “humble, gentle person.”

For my day job, I manage social media and create Internet content for Family Theater Productions, a Holy Cross apostolate and film/TV/digital production company, based on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

It was founded in the late 1940s by Irish Holy Cross priest Father Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., the “Rosary Priest,” seen here, appropriately, praying a rosary with Mother Teresa.

Above them is one of Father Peyton’s favorite sayings. The other one is:

The family that prays together stays together.

Father Willy Raymond, C.S.C., who once ran FTP, is now president of the parent organization, Holy Cross Family Ministries, based near Boston. He’s currently at World Youth Day — where Catholic youth from around the world are encountering Pope Francis and Christ — so I asked him if he would gather some reactions from folks he sees there.

This is what he saw and heard.

Mackenzie VanMeveren Watkins:

“Father Jacques is a martyr, and I am horrified and sad for our future all over the world. I think we are living in some of the worst times, with ISIS finding a way to steal our joy about once a month these days. I am also sad at the lack of coverage in the media, and how little my generation seems to know about anything going on in the world. I hope we can spend less time on social media and more time in prayer and fasting for the good of the whole world. “

Collin Watkins:

“I actually had not heard the details about Father Jacques Hamel until I arrived to World Youth Day. In my opinion, he is in every sense of the word a martyr and an unbelievable example of what is means to be courageous.

The grieving the international Catholic community feels over Father Jacques is very real, but his memory will never be forgotten. His actions have made him a saint, and is something we as Catholics need always remember. His unwavering faith is something I will take with me and shows the evil in this world that our faith is real and true.”

Seminarian Alec Sasse:

“I’m very troubled by this murder. It’s a heinous and evil attack on the Church Herself. But I’m also captured by the beauty that this priest died as Christ did: laying down his life while bringing salvation.”

Pothula Guna, Catholic priest from Canada:

Father Willy reports that he feels terrible and sad. “Pope Francis says this is war, we need to pray for conversion of terrorists.”

There’s lots more WYD content from Father Willy on our Facebook page (which I hope you’ll like, along with our Twitter and Instagram), along with lots of great graphics and videos, a blog that looks at faith and family in the media, and updates on our prayer events and original productions:

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/father-jacques-hamel-world-youth-day-attendees-react-to-islamist-murder-of-french-priest/feed/2A French Martyr, and the West in Denialhttps://www.catholicvote.org/a-french-martyr-and-the-west-in-denial/
https://www.catholicvote.org/a-french-martyr-and-the-west-in-denial/#commentsTue, 26 Jul 2016 20:21:43 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=9794Father Jacques Hamel, an 84-year-old Catholic priest, was martyred in France today by men shouting “Allah Akbar.” A nun is said to be in critical condition.

According to the Daily Mail, two men with knives “stormed into a church…Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen during mass shouting Allahu Akbar.” They evidently took five people hostage, butchered the elderly priest and nearly killed a nun.

The knifemen were ultimately killed by police, who are looking for a third suspect. According to police, the church is on a “terrorist hit list” of Catholic Churches.

I have no doubt that Father Jacques is in heaven today. I also have no doubt that his martyrdom was allowed by bad government policies which, to be honest, confound me.

What is driving this determination toward suicidal immigration policies in the West? I am honestly trying to figure it out.

In my long years in politics, I learned that when people push policies that are illogical and, in this case, suicidal, and they won’t quit lying, bullying, and refusing to accept reality, you need to look for the money to figure out what’s driving them.

That’s like a political rule. In all my years of messing with chickens, it’s never been wrong once.

So, where is the money behind the disastrous immigration policies that are setting up the Western world for terrorist attacks? Or, more directly, who is making the money?

The recent Brexit vote gave us a sort of road map for figuring this out. It appears that corporate interests on both sides of the Atlantic are operating together and hand in hand with their puppet governments to drive this.

When the President of the United States goes traipsing across the big pond to try to interfere in a British election, and he explicitly tries to use economic bullying to make his point, it’s not exactly hard to figure out that money is the engine that’s powering things.

Meanwhile, an 84-year-old priest was butchered this morning. He is clearly a martyr. I pray that the nun who was so gravely injured recovers, but I know that if she doesn’t, she is a martyr who will go straight to heaven as well.

We add their names to the list of innocent people who have been brutally murdered by Islamic Extremists — a list that is getting far too long. At least the president of France is not claiming that the terrorists were other than what they obviously were. He isn’t calling his enraged citizens bigots for being angry about the slaughter.

That’s a sort of start, I guess. But it’s too little, and way too late. France has a huge problem, as does the rest of Europe and, to a lesser extent, America. It was caused by policies that were so obviously bad that even a small child could have seen this coming.

The political alignments that came out of World War II are changing. That’s because the threats to civilization have changed; or at least they’ve changed how they operate. The governments of the West have been taken over by amoral international corporate interests who clearly have no loyalty to anyone or anything.

This kind of upheaval is always threatening to the little people like you and me, and rightfully so. There’s an old saying that when the buffalo fight in the swamps, the frogs lose. Like most old sayings, it is reality-based. The ordinary people of the Western world have been the losers in these disastrous policies all along.

We’ve lost jobs, security, our social order and our voice in our own governments. Now, it appears that our governments are willing to also offer up our lives.

The problem for them is that they may have gone a bridge too far. The bullying and baiting that they use against their citizens to cow them into silence may be losing its effect. You can only call people who disagree with your policies bigots for so long before a least a few of them start to see through you.

]]>https://www.catholicvote.org/a-french-martyr-and-the-west-in-denial/feed/1Congress & the Battle for Conscience Rightshttps://www.catholicvote.org/congress-the-battle-for-conscience-rights/
https://www.catholicvote.org/congress-the-battle-for-conscience-rights/#respondWed, 13 Jul 2016 19:15:11 +0000https://www.catholicvote.org/?p=9550Two hundred and forty years ago last week, our founders unanimously signed a declaration. A declaration that, as Abraham Lincoln so eloquently noted, conceived our nation in liberty and dedicated it to the proposition that all men are created equal—a declaration that recognized that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Now Congress is met on a great battlefield of that war this week, the struggle for all men to have the right to life, to liberty of conscience, and to pursue the ultimate happiness of knowing and serving their Creator. They meet on that battlefield to test whether this nation or any nation can endure to protect these rights that have been bestowed by a higher power—not by the power of the government.

Today, Congress will vote on the Conscience Protection Act (H.R. 4828). This act would reinforce the Weldon Amendment, the federal conscience amendment that prohibits HHS funds from being used for any federal, state, or local agency that discriminates against an individual or institutional heath care entity because they will not provide, pay for, or refer for abortions. The Act protects millions of Americans from violating their consciences by performing or referring for abortion procedures, or by paying for abortion in health care services.

Current laws in New York and California, along with a recent decision in Washington state, force health care providers of conscience to choose between their jobs and their beliefs. They silence opposition and handcuff health care workers who care for the most vulnerable of our society.

Americans of conscience are facing a time that challenges faith and compels us to speak up for truth, no matter what station in life we inhabit. We rightly look to the Middle East and watch the violent convert-or-die “red” martyrdom of our brothers and sisters there. We feel great anger and sadness on their behalf, and we do what we can to defend them and provide the resources necessary to survive.

Yet very often we look past the quiet, white martyrdom of the West. This creeping secular advance of anti-Christian propaganda is guided by sexual license and gnostic ideals. In the West, we don’t yet lose our heads if we fail to conform to secularism, but we may lose our jobs or our way of life. Oftentimes, our very souls and spiritual life are on the line.

Bakers in multiple states, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and pastors in Houston and Iowa facing speech restrictions are but a few of the visible faces of the white martyrdom of the West. What is not seen are the health care workers and medical students who face persecution for refusing to perform abortions, the pharmacists who are forced to provide life-ending drugs, and the women who struggle to find doctors willing to care for an unborn child with special needs. The list could go on, and it is not just confined to the health care industry.

Congress must act to protect conscientious Americans from further discrimination by allowing them to follow their deeply held religious and moral beliefs, especially when it comes to protecting innocent human life. If health care workers are not able to protect and care for vulnerable human life, who in our society will?

While speaking at the Becket Fund after receiving their Canterbury Medal, Armando Valladares, a Cuban freedom fighter, congratulated the Little Sisters of the Poor for living out the richness of their conscience “which no government bureaucrat can invade…They know what my body knows after 22 years of cruel torture: that if they sign the form, the government demands they will be violating their conscience and would commit spiritual suicide. If they did this, they would forfeit the true and only wealth they have in abandoning the castle of their consciences.”

This week Congress must meet on the battlefield of our founding principles to protect the “castle of conscience” for millions of Americans across the country. As Pope Saint John Paul II once said, “When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society.”

We know this to be true. In turning against humanity and freedom of conscience, we give the government the power to determine who is a valuable human being and who is not, who needs to bow to the tower of the secular gnostic babble and who is free to do as they please, when civil discourse and religion are allowed to flourish and when they are to be silenced.

American freedom depends on this vote. It is up to Congress to again stand for our first principles.

Medicare and Medicaid patients would be completely shut out of Catholic medical care. But that’s really just the beginning.With the loss of millions of patients, just about every Catholic hospital would have to shut down. It would be the end of Catholic health care in America.

Generations of Catholics have devoted their lives to building Catholic hospitals in the United States. We urgently need to protect this legacy. Take a minute and pick up your phone now.

Understanding everything that’s at stake, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and USCCB President Cardinal Dolan pleaded with Congress to pass this legislation immediately:”While existing federal laws already protect conscientious objection to abortion in theory, this protection has not proved effective in practice. Since then, three new developments make the need for immediate action to pass the Conscience Protection Act even more urgent,” said Cardinal Dolan and Archbishop Lori.

Those three developments:

The Obama administration ruled against two Catholic universities on June 21, requiring them to submit to a state demand to cover elective abortions in their insurance plans — despite objections by the schools on religious liberty grounds. The Obama administration said that the Weldon amendment signed into law in 2004 applied only to insurers and physicians — not to insurance companies. Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, called this an “outrageous misinterpretation.”

New York’s Department of Financial Services in May ordered healthcare entities to provide abortion coverage in their health care plans including faith-based nonprofits, churches, and Christian businesses. No exemptions at all were provided.

A Washington state judge ruled in June that any hospital that provides maternity care must also provide abortion services on site.

Make no mistake: the attacks on religious liberty are escalating every week. We need all Catholics to step up to the plate and fight for their cherished first Freedom of Religious Liberty.

If you have never called your Representative before, make this your first call.

Call the Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Give them your zip code and they’ll patch you through to your Representative’s office.

Nothing gets the attention of Congress like their phones ringing off the hook.

Yet. But the ACLU, the HHS Department, and all the other demons of the underworld are giving it their best shot, and getting close.

Which is why, in a letter to Congress today, Cardinal Dolan and Archbishop Lori urged representatives to pass the Conscience Protection Act of 2016 to prevent doctors and nurses from being forced to perform abortions.

Federal law has already provided such protection for decades, but just recently these laws have been subject to new “interpretations” that have gutted their meaning and rendered them completely ineffectual.

The Conscience Protection Act is intended to shore up those long-standing legal protections so that healthcare providers and employers will not be forced to perform or provide access to abortion against their consciences.

As is becoming more and more often the case, there is much at stake. Make no mistake – the forces of death won’t stop until every obstetrics doctor and nurse in the country is forced to perform abortions or give up their license.

We can sit back and let it happen, or we can stand behind the bishops and make our voices heard with theirs.